2025 - Early Career Scholar Travel Award to an Archaeological Mission in Samarra, Iraq, by Mattia Guidetti

This project helps provide two early career scholars with the opportunity to travel to Samarra in Iraq, the planned city of the Abbasid caliphs that was inhabited for only half a century. One of the major sites within the city is Husn al-Qadisiya, a huge, octagonal foundation and offers valuable insights into the evolution of urban planning and civil architecture in the early Islamic period. The site hasn’t been investigated in a detail way and remains in remarkably good condition.

The two scholars are experts in Geographical Informational Systems (GIS) and ceramics, and will conduct a detailed investigation of the site through photogrammetric recording of its octagonal structure and a survey of surface pottery. The site is expected to become part of a larger archaeological park, and the upcoming mission will contribute valuable data and visual documentation in support of
this goal.

The project is led by Mattia Guidetti, Associate Professor in Islamic Archaeology and Art History. His research interests include Christian, Islamic, and Jewish art in the eastern Mediterranean from late antiquity to the medieval period.

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